This module generates a MANIFEST.SKIP file for you (using Module::Manifest::Skip) that contains the common files that people do not want in their MANIFEST files. The SKIP file is generated each time that you (the module author) run Makefile.PL.

You can add your own custom entries at the top of the MANIFEST file. Just put a blank line after your entries, and they will be left alone.

This module also adds 'MANIFEST' to the clean_files() list so that make clean will remove your MANIFEST.

one school of thought for release management is that you never commit your MANIFEST file. You just generate it using make manifest, right before releasing a module, and then delete it afterwards.

This is good because you never forget to add new files to your MANIFEST. The only problems are that you always need to generate a MANIFEST.SKIP file, and you need to add MANIFEST to your clean_files, or delete it by hand. This module does these things for you.